Posts Tagged ‘wedding’

Our neighbor, Mary's son, Garrison was married recently in Raleigh, North Carolina. We were able to attend the wedding and we were able to stay with our friends, Cathy and David, who live in the area.

Here are the bride and her father walking down the long staircase:

Here is Mary with her son, Garrison, and her new daughter-in-law, Lauren.

Garrison and Lauren both taught in China for a year and they chose to serve Chinese finger foods for the appetizers before the wedding dinner.

The dinner was delicious and the table settings and flowers were especially pretty.

The new couple will be residing in Florida where the groom will be completing another year of training.

We drove up to the Raleigh area on Friday and the wedding wasn't until Saturday evening. On Saturday morning Cathy took us to a wonderful farmer's market in Raleigh. She told us that NC has two state farmer's markets: one in Raleigh and one in Asheville. The market was huge and had aisle after aisle of fresh vegetables, fruits, plants, and flowers. I tried to restrain myself, but couldn't resist buying a box of tomatoes for canning. We ate a delicious breakfast at the restaurant at the market. People were lined up out the door waiting for tables and we could see why.

Cathy also took us on a tour of their printing business, Millenium Printing. The Lord has blessed their business and it was amazing to see some of the things that they have been able to produce.

On Sunday we went to church (I often listen to their pastor on BBN) and out to lunch and then back to Cathy and David's for a picture session before heading back home.

We had a very enjoyable visit and took the scenic way to Charlotte, driving on routes US 64 and NC 49 and then catching I-85 going right by IKEA to come back to Greenville. On NC 49 we stopped for a coffee/ice cream/bathroom break at Coffee Central in Richfield, North Carolina and enjoyed talking with the owner of the shop there.

I tried something new for canning some of the tomatoes. I had been reading about Tattler canning lids for a couple of years now and bought one box of them this spring at the Mast General Store. The lids have removable rubber rings and they are reusable. They are a bit pricey initially but they can be re-used several times. I thought they were easy to use and was pleased that all my jars sealed properly. Have any of you heard of or used Tattler lids?

DD Nora wanted me to make a key lime cake with coconut icing for the wedding. She had a recipe for the icing, but not for the cake. I did a lot of experimenting over the last few months before finally coming up with a recipe we approved of. Many of the recipes I found contained lime gelatin, but we didn't care for the color of that cake and the flavor wasn't quite what we were looking for either. I'm definitely not a professional baker and assembling the cake outdoors on a very windy day was rather daunting, but fortunately it all stayed together.

Today I'm going to post the recipe I used for the wedding cake. One thing that we discovered added a nice lime flavor was the lime oil. I ordered this from the King Arthur baking catalog. I had experimented with lime zest, but the oil was definitely our preferred flavor booster.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease, flour, and line baking pans with waxed paper. In a large bowl stir together the cake mix, instant pudding, water, oil, eggs, key lime juice, food coloring, and lime oil. Mix on low for about 30 seconds and then on medium for 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pans and then bake according to the time recommended for the size pans you are using. (For 8" round pans it takes about 35-45 mins.) Test to see if the cake is done. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 mins. and then carefully turn out onto cooling racks. While the cake is cooling you can make:

In mixing bowl cream butter, shortening, salt, and coconut extract. Add powdered sugar and cream and mix well. This should be plenty for a two layer 8" or 9" cake. Frost cake and then you can add fresh coconut on the sides and top of the cake if you wish. This frosting is delicious!

I had not used coconut extract much before, but have decided it is a wonderful flavor even if you don't like actual coconut. I recently tried this frosting on a chocolate mayonnaise cake and it was a great combination.

Thanks to all who have made such nice comments about the wedding and our new little grandson, Ryan. We could tell that people were praying for us that day and we were truly blessed. It certainly is a date that no one in our family will ever forget.

As I promised in my last post here are some pictures from the wedding:

Here's a shot of the back of Nora's dress:

Here is DH Rob walking Nora down the aisle:

Here are a couple of shots of the bridesmaids:

Topher's parents and Rob and I had a few minutes to relax just before the ceremony:

This picture (one of many attempts) shows some of the many children who were at or in the wedding. Nora is a nanny and wanted all the children to be involved. They were all remarkably well behaved during the ceremony. (My friend Sandy did tell me that she saw the two ring bearers having a pillow fight with their little pillows as she was leaving the church though.) 🙂

Here are Nora and Topher in front of the church:

As they left the church people tossed gold candy coins at them. The coins were immediately gathered up by the children in the crowd. (For those in the Greenville area you will not be surprised to learn that we were able to find a couple of boxes of the candy coins at Wilson's. We have found over the years that if you are looking for a hard to find item they often have it or can get it for you!)

And, finally, here is a picture of the bride and groom speeding away from the church in a ... rickshaw!

The rickshaw company actually decorates this way for weddings. The newlyweds' house is just a few blocks from the church so the driver drove them around downtown for a bit and them dropped them off at their front door.

I hope you have enjoyed a pictorial view of the wedding. I'm planning just one more post about the wedding and then have some other topics to explore. Hope you are having a wonderful week.

Over the weekend Nora and Topher got back from their honeymoon in Chicago. They had a wonderful week and enjoyed visiting many interesting sites in the city.

People have very generously shared their wedding photos with us and we now have quite a few to choose from. I thought I would try to do a couple of posts showing a few more of the little details and of the people involved in the wedding. So, if you're not interested in wedding details you can opt out. 🙂

Here is the big cardboard "C" that Topher was painting in a previous picture. It is covered in paper flowers that Nora made and that several of Topher's relatives helped "fluff."

Megan and I stitched these pew banners and then Meg and Nora painted them.

Several of the ladies helped to make these large paper flowers which were used to decorate the tent. My nephews graciously helped to hang them on the very windy afternoon of the wedding.

This was the wish tree where the guests could write out wishes on cards and attach them to the tree with ribbons.

This was the guest tree which Nora drew while she was recovering from her back surgery. The guests inked their thumbs and made thumbprint "leaves" on the tree and then wrote their names by their print.

This was what the food tent looked like without the food.

We had a small tent outside the main tent for the wedding cake. The girls all put their bouquets on the table which made it quite beautiful. We have known the girl who did the flowers since she was a small child. She now works with flowers up at the Biltmore House in Asheville. We thought they were very lovely. I got to bring several bouquets home and enjoy them for several days after the wedding.

In my next post I'll include pictures of the families and the wedding party and give you a few more details.

Well, we had a doubly blessed weekend. The wedding went off without a hitch, although they did get hitched. The bride was beautiful and everything turned out fine in spite of some complications with high winds and trying to set up the reception in a tent! Here is a picture of the happy couple and us:

About 3:30 the morning of the wedding we got a call from DS, Mark telling us that Katie was in labor and they were at the hospital. About three hours before the wedding he texted to tell us that they had broken her water and that she was dilated to 9. We were definitely torn emotionally with extreme joy for Nora and Topher at their wedding and with concern for Mark and Katie and the delivery of the baby. Later in the afternoon we heard from Mark that Ryan David had arrived at 2:56 (the wedding was at 2). He was turned face up and they had to use suction to help with the delivery. It caused some swelling and a wound on his head, but we still think he's pretty adorable. Both parents and baby are doing well and hope to go home from the hospital tomorrow.

We weren't able to take too many pictures at the wedding or the reception, but I will try to post some as people send them to us. I'm sure I'll also be posting lots of baby pictures too! 🙂